I recently saw this Roman counting chart http://i.imgur.com/i5xEMSo.jpg
To my knowledge most people can't bend their pinky independently to the rest of their fingers due to a muscle issue, I was wondering is this chart real and if so what caused people to lose the ability.
P.S. should have probably put 'bend' not 'move' in the title.
This chart is probably exaggerating and simplifying the bent/unbent fingers. If you bend your pinky and your ring finger comes down a little bit, you can easily read it as "pinky down, ring finger up".
You can also learn to move your pinky somewhat independently from your ring finger with practice; it's not so much that they're coming off of the same muscle as that most people don't have much cause to learn this fine control of that part of their anatomy.If you learn to play guitar or keyboards, or to touch-type, you'll have to spend some time gaining better control of that finger.
When you say "most people can't bend their pinky independently to the rest of their fingers due to a muscle issue." Are you referencing #1 on the chart you posted?
What makes you think most people can't?
In many parts of Europe is normal to display "4", exactly like on number 7 and 1 in the image. Personally I have absolutely no problem moving the pinky independently.
